Sorry, not even close. Gingrich has more baggage than the Atlanta Terminal. If they were all exposed to the general public, they would flee from him like they would a dead skunk. Even if you believe he is a solid conservative, he is a terrible candidate, especially against a ruthless machine that will make the most of his tawdry past, and I'm including in this his fronting for Fannie and Freddie when they were destroying our economy. Can you imagine what Jamie Goerlick would have to say about Gingrich's role with them? He'd be toast.
Published: July 26, 2008
WASHINGTON — When three-quarters of House Republicans balked Wednesday at a housing bill certain to become law, they were signaling three things at once: an ideological opposition to government involvement in the markets, a fiscal objection to writing a blank check that could cost taxpayers dearly if the condition of the mortgage finance system turns much worse and a political judgment that this was a moment to demonstrate their independence from President Bush.
Republicans said they were just sticking up for the taxpayer in opposing what they saw as a badly flawed measure that could cost Americans many billions of dollars if the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ran into more trouble. They also said a provision encouraging banks to give better rates to distressed homeowners would ultimately cause the Federal Housing Administration to pay off bad loans. And they really did not like yet another provision, making nearly $4 billion in grants available for local governments to buy up distressed properties.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke at a private party meeting before the vote and joined Mr. Boehner in encouraging Republicans to oppose the measure, rallying lawmakers who remember that it was Mr. Gingrich’s ideas that prevailed in the halcyon days of the Republican revolution.
On a housing bill, most House Republicans decided in the end to align with their conservative base.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/washington/26cong.html
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Newt was pointing out HOW CORRUPT F&F were, even in 2008, with Michelle Bachmann, no less.
Here is a transcript of Newt saying on CSPAN, how horrible Freddie and Fannie were managed and they should be dismantled...
"Governing & Political Change" held in St. Paul, Minnesota.
September 3, 2008
Bachmann: The question is on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the outrage and will it go private? or where are Fannie Mae and Feddie Mac going to go?
Gingrich: Well, I think this is one of the great tests of reform- of a populist reform conservatism. There is ZERO reasons to bail out these two institutions.
They have violated the fundamental principle of why they were created. And I did a fair amount of-... Let me be right up front... I did a fair amount of work with Freddie Mac, looking atit, consulting it, but not at a fiduciary level, but at a general public policy level.
I am appalled at the degree of management irresponsibility that both places have had, and I think they should be treated precisely like a private sector institution, And the stockholders, and the senior management should fundamentally have to bear the brunt...
I don't think you want to let them go broke, because they're enormous, and that has a BIG second and third order consequence on the system.
But I think what you want to say, is as a consequence of their survival, they should be broken up, they should go thru the equivalent of a receivership, and everybody whowas profiting from them should pay the cost of having failed.
And the general taxpayer should NOT bear that burden. and I think that could be handled totally different.
But there is ZERO reason, now that they've failed... I was perfectly happy to to not PUSH the issue, as long as they weren't failing, but NOW that they've clearly failed their fiduciary responsibility, there is zero reason for the average taxpayer to bail out these institutions.
And their senior managements have been DISGRACEFUL in the mismanagement, particularly I think, of Fannie Mae which had huge, huge, internal problems in terms of accounting, in a way you can't quite understand...
How could people run an institution THAT badly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YiYWnA1_y8&feature=player_embedded